Business from technology

Eija Kaasinen

Current position at VTT

Dr Eija Kaasinen is Research Coordinator, being in charge of the Human Technology Interaction research entity at VTT. Her responsibility includes increasing and strengthening the impact of human perspective in VTT's research on technical innovations and developments. 

Research background and current research topics

Eija Kaasinen has over 10 years’ expertise of software engineering and project management in industry. At VTT she has been in charge of human-centred design and evaluation activities within several European and national research projects, focusing specially on mobile services and ubiquitous computing. Eija Kaasinen has defined a framework to study user acceptance of mobile services. The framework, Technology Acceptance Model for Mobile Services (http://www.vtt.fi/inf/pdf/publications/2005/P566.pdf ), has been applied in many projects.
She has also been studying user acceptance of ambient intelligence applications as a work package leader in MIMOSA and MINAmI projects http://www.fp6-minami.org/ .
Her current research interests include broadening human-centred design approach to the design of technical infrastructures. Another research interest is combining the methods of user acceptance studies and business studies to create a common framework to support the innovation, development and evaluation of new ICT services.

Research topics

Impact analysis. The innovation, development and evaluation of new ICT services requires integration of different viewpoints. In addition to user acceptance, business benefits, organizational influences, societal influences, security, ethical issues and sustainability issues may need to be analysed. When developing new technologies, the impacts should be analysed from the very beginning to ensure the success of the developments. Best results can be achieved by integrating methods from different areas.
User-driven innovation. User role is changing from a research object to an active co-designer and content creator. This requires new kinds of co-creation methods and practices for innovation and design. The design should be continued in actual use where users create content and develop and share usage practises.
Human-centred design of technical infrastructures. Especially with ubiquitous computing applications, many properties of the applications are defined by the underlying technical infrastructures. Methodological development is required in extending the human-centred design approach to the design of technical enablers such as technology platforms and architectural solutions. Extending design to technical enablers facilitates earlier feedback of user needs and preferences to the technical development.
User acceptance of mobile-centric Ambient Intelligence services. Mobile terminals are increasingly evolving into tools to orient in the environment and to interact with it, thus introducing a mobile-centric approach to Ambient Intelligence. Introducing Ambient Intelligence services as extensions to current mobile services may ease adoption of the services. User acceptance needs to be studied regarding both individual services and whole concepts.

Current major research projects at VTT

Cloud software. This large research program by TIVIT gathers together main actors in Finnish software industry. The program is developing cloud software technologies, developing lean and agile software development methods and developing business processes for cloud software. One of the research themes is User Experience (UX) as a business factor. The aim is to develop methods to measure UX, communicate UX in the organisation and to connect UX to business processes. Another UX-related theme is identifying the UX possibilities and challenges of cloud software and utilising/solving them for superior user experience.
User experience and usability in Complex Systems (UXUS). This research programme by FIMECC is creating new interaction concepts and innovative practises with Finnish metals and engineering industry. The target is to broaden the design focus from mere products to user and customer experiences. The programme challenges current technology driven user interaction design approaches and takes user experience and productiveness as design drivers.
Guardian Angels. This European "grand challenge" flagship research initiative preparatory action is focused on developing future zero-power, intelligent systems-of-systems featuring sensing, computation and communication. Physical, Environmental and Emotional Guardian Angel systems enable radically new kinds of services. Eija Kaaasinen is leading the work to assess the impacts on individuals, society, economy and environment to influence technology development accordingly.

Education

Dr.Tech. Human-Centred Technology, Tampere University of Technology, 2005
M.Sc. Electrical Engineering, Tampere University of Technology

Work history

User-driven innovation
User Involvement in Service Innovations (USEIN, 2009-2010,). This Tekes-funded project combined methods from user acceptance and business studies to identify best approaches, methods and practices for customer and user involvement in service innovations and design. The project was carried out in cooperation with Tampere University, Centre for Research on Information, Customer and Innovation Management and four participating companies that provided case studies.
Human-centred design of technical infrastructures
Eija Kaasinen has been a work package leader in MIMOSA (MIcrosystems platform for MObile Services and Applications) project (2004-2006), being in charge of human-centred design activities in the project. MIMOSA was an integrated project studying Ambient Intelligence components and applications in the Information Society Technologies priority of the European Sixth Framework Research Programme.
She acted as a WP leader also in MINAmI (Micro-Nano integrated platform for traverse Ambient Intelligence applications ) project (2006-2009) that was continuing MIMOSA work. In MINAmI project she was in charge of human-centred design approach in the project as well as ethical issues. Based on the results of MIMOSA and MINAmI projects, VTT has extended human-centred design approach to the design of technical infrastructures.
Eija Kaasinen has worked as a WP leader in project Ecological design of ambient intelligence (EASE, 2005-2007), where several Finnish universities and research institutes together defined design guidelines and design methods for acceptable ambient intelligence applications for different application fields. The results of the study were published as a Finnish book: Kaasinen, E. and Norros, L. (eds.) 2007. Älykkäiden ympäristöjen suunnittelu. Kohti ekologista systeemiajattelua. (Designing Intelligent Environments. Towards Ecological Systems Approach).
Horizontal usability studies
Eija Kaasinen was in charge of VTT’s research group in the horizontal project USINACTS in European ACTS Research Programme (1996-2000). USINACTS project supported other European telecommunications research projects in usability issues. Eija Kaasinen was in charge of a horizontal support project in the Personal Navigation research programme by the Ministry of Telecommunications and Transport in Finland (2000-2003). The project studied usability and ethical issues of personal navigation services.
Mobile Internet
Eija Kaasinen was one of the pioneers studying mobile Internet already since 1998. Based on the findings she defined a framework to study user acceptance of mobile services. The framework, Technology Acceptance Model for Mobile Services, has been applied in many projects.
Software engineering
Before VTT, Eija Kaasinen has been working as a software designer and project manager in Finnish industry for over 10 years.

Positions of trust and professional assignments

SIGCHI Finland (Special Interest Group – Computer-Human Interaction), board member 2002-2004.
Finnish Information Processing Association, FIPA. Board member in Usability Special Interest Group 2006-
Eija Kaasinen acts as a member of editorial and programme boards in several journals and conferences

Selected publications

Kaasinen, Eija; Mattila, Elina M.; Lammi, Hanna; Kivinen, Tuomo; Välkkynen, Pasi. 2011.
Technology Acceptance Model for Mobile Services as a Design Framework
Human-Computer Interaction and Innovation in Handheld, Mobile and Wearable Technologies. IGI Global. Hershey, USA (2011), 80 – 107

Eija Kaasinen; Mari Ainasoja; Elina Vulli; Heli Paavola; Riina Hautala; Pauliina Lehtonen; Esa Reunanen. 2010. User involvement in service innovations. VTT Tiedotteita - Research Notes : 2552.

Kaasinen, E.; Niemela, M.; Tuomisto, T.; Välkkynen, P.; Jantunen, I.; Merino, J.; Santiago, M.A.; Kaaja, H. 2009. Ubimedia based on readable and writable memory tags. Multimedia Systems Journal. Online First. Springer.

Kaasinen, Eija; Kulju, Minna; Kivinen, Tuomo; Oksman, Virpi. 2009. User acceptance of mobile TV services. Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction with Mobile Devices and Services, Mobile HCI 2009. Bonn, 16 - 18 Sept. 2009. ACM. Bonn, DE (2009)

Kaasinen, Eija. 2009. User Acceptance of Mobile Services. International Journal of Mobile Human Computer Interaction. IGI Global. Vol. 1 (2009) No: 1, 79 - 97

Kaasinen, Eija; Roto, Virpi; Roloff, Kristin; Väänänen-Vainio-Mattila, Kaisa; Vainio, Teija; Maehr, Wolfgang; Joshi, Dhaval; Shrestha, Sujan. 2009.  User Experience of Mobile Internet: Analysis and Recommendations. International Journal of Mobile Human Computer Interaction (IJMHCI). Vol. 1, Issue 4, 4-23

Kaasinen, Eija. 2005. User acceptance of mobile services - value, ease of use,trust and ease of adoption. VTT Publications : 566.

Kaasinen, Eija. 2003. User needs for location-aware mobile services. Personal and Ubiquitous Computing. Vol. 7 (2003) No: 1, 70 - 79

For complete list of publications, see Eija Kaasinen’s publications in VTT Publications Register.